


Akari no Go

by nigoi



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Reincarnation, implied - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 02:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16672921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigoi/pseuds/nigoi
Summary: Sai haunts Akari, to the latter's displeasure.





	Akari no Go

Akari is going to kill Hikaru.

His plans are infamous for going disastrously, true, and she knows that better than anyone, knows it deep in her bones. But—a  _ ghost _ ? How do you go looking for a flute in a dusty attic and end up haunted by a ghost? Even Akari doesn’t know, and said spectrum is currently whining her ear off.

“Listen to me,  _ please _ !”

Akari keeps her hands firmly covering her ears. “If I ignore him long enough, he’ll vanish; if I ignore him long enough, he’ll vanish…” she chants under her breath.

Its eyes fill with tears, and her stomach does something like a pirouette. She stubbornly doesn’t move until the urge to vomit is so strong she has to sprint to the bathroom or risk ruining her favourite t-shirt.

“Um…” the ghost says, taking advantage of her inability to answer back. It’s politely not covering its nose from the admittedly terrible smell, though, so she can cut it some slack. “My name is Fujiwara no Sai.” It then proceeds to tell her its entire life story. Akari is so moved she even forgets to not hear it.

“So… you just want to play go? No weird possessions or anything like that?” Fujiwara nods very, very enthusiastically. That… is honestly better than she was expecting. “Okay, okay. I’ll let you play, um, two games per day! How is it for an initial deal?”

Fujiwara nods again, this time a little more reluctantly. He looks like he wants to play all day, but Akari glares at him before he protests. She has hobbies and friends and studies, too! She can’t spend her entire life satisfying the needs of someone else, she has enough with Hikaru’s whiny butt.

Speaking of Hikaru…

“Fujiwara-san, I know who you can play with!”

His eyes shine. “Really?”

Akari grins. She hopes so, at least—Hikaru has tried practically every hobby known to man, so why would go be different? If it is, she can imagine an afternoon filled with sad ghosts and a friend’s corpse.

She picks one stone from a bag, and throws it at Hikaru’s bedroom window. There’s no answer, so she throws one more. When she is about to throw the fourth, Hikaru sticks his head out.

“What?!” he shouts, removing his headphones. “I am busy!”

“Come here!” she shouts back, gesturing wildly with her hands.

He cups one ear with his hand. “What?!”

“Come! Here! Now!” She slams her hands against the window frame with each word to emphasise the urgency.

“Why?!”

“To play go!”

There’s a pause.

“What?!”

“GO!”

“No, no, I heard you! I meant, why go?!”

“Just because! Now come!”

Hikaru shakes his head and points to his headphones. He says something, but Akari doesn’t hear what it is. She can understand the gist of the message, though, and doesn’t like it. Before she can answer-slash-yell back something about his idiocy, he shuts the window and draws the curtains.

“For the love of— This is important, Hikaru!”

The window remains stubbornly closed. She slams hers shut too, and turns back to Fujiwara, who looks like he’s tried to find a place to hide and failed. Really, she’s surprised he hasn’t called her out for screaming—she supposes he really likes go that much.

She smiles. “One moment,” she says, and goes to the bathroom.

Changing into more presentable clothing than her pajamas, Akari thinks about how she’s going to decapitate her best friend with her bare hands.

Once she’s dressed with a beautiful summer dress, matching what Hikaru’s wearing today, she’s ready to march to his house, and does exactly that. She knocks, politely, and Hikaru’s mom opens the door.

“Hi—”

“Don’t bother, Akari-chan, I heard you.”

Akari’s mouth snaps shut, and she grins charmingly, hoping to evade a lecture. After a moment, Hikaru’s mom steps away from the door, looking resigned. “Please, don’t maim him. Much.”

“I’ll try, Shindou-san,” Akari says, taking off her shoes. “I’ll try.”

She gracefully walks towards the door of Hikaru’s, and slams the door open.

“Wh—Argh!” Hikaru jumps, startled, carelessly dropping his guitar. He picks it up and hugs it, looking at her resentfully. “Akari! I told you I was busy!”

“And I told you playing go was important! You can compose later!”

He pouts. “But later maybe I won’t be inspired.”

“Don’t worry, you will,” she affirms, patting his head reassuringly. When he seems calmer, she strikes: “Now play with me?”

He closes his eyes for a second and then opens them again. “Just one game.” He makes it sound like it’s an herculean task, the jerk.

Akari nods. “Just one.” Not that she wanted more; if Sai is as good as he says he is, playing against a jack of all trades is not going to be challenging in any way. But, well, good enough for the first day, she supposes, as she and Hikaru start to improvise a go board.

Behind her, Fujiwara’s eyes shine, and he excitedly approaches the makeshift goban—namely, a paper with shaky more-or-less-straight lines drawn in it. Instead of black and white stones, they have chess pieces and Yugioh pins, respectively.

It looks like a mess, but Hikaru, after muttering “onegaishimasu”, picks one of his chess pieces almost reverently with two fingers, and puts it in the ‘’’’goban’’’’ with a soft  _ tud _ . 

Akari is startled by the sudden change in her friend’s demeanor, but doesn’t have time to dwell on it, because Sai calls out “14-7”. She has no idea where that is, but she supposes she just has to count. After putting down the stone (Yugioh pin) in what she hopes is the right position, Sai whines, “That was 7-14, A-ka-ri!”

_ Sorry, sorry _ , she mouths at the ghost, smiling apologetically. From that point on, Sai limits to point with his fan.

The match lasts a  _ looong _ time, and Akari is politely not closing her eyes by the end of it, so when Hikaru bows his head and resigns, she feels like Christmas has come early.

“Good game,” she tries, even when she has no idea of how well it was played. Fujiwara is a worse player than he implied, if it’s lasted this long, duh.

Hikaru stares at her for more time that is socially correct, and his gaze seems to slide over her shoulder where Sai is, but it lasts a second so maybe that’s her imagination.

“Is he—” He pauses.

“Hm?”

“...Nothing.”

There’s a pause.

“Well,” she says, getting up nonchalantly. “See you, Hikaru.”

His glance is already directed back at the goban, so he says “Bye,” without its usual effusiveness.

On her short way back home, Fujiwara is also eerily quiet.

“What’s the matter?” she says, her house keys already in her hands.

He looks at her, then at Hikaru’s window, and back at her again. “That playstyle…” he whispers, clutching his fan. “It was Torajiro’s.”

Akari blinks.

**Author's Note:**

> this idea was meant to be a full story, but my planning stopped here. it's possible i continue it tho, but dont get your hopes up.


End file.
